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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Adrian Lewis, post: 2461194, member: 12565&quot;]Although your overview of rabbet joints etc may hold water in the classical sense of an apprentice piece,&nbsp; we do not know the level of craftsmanship taught in individual cabinet maker&#039;s workshops around the country at the time. What may have been taught in a city cabinet makers workshop may well have been watered down in a provincial workshop. Hence the difference in quality of city&nbsp; and provincial/country furniture. Anything more would be sheer speculation. </p><p>As far as the lock and key are concerned I completely disagree. The key is classic mid-late 19thC form and if you view the screws in the back of the lock you will also find that the&nbsp; slot in both screws are off centre, thus indicating hand cut and pre 1860s/1870s (rule of thumb)&nbsp; before general availability&nbsp; of machine cut screws. </p><p>As you mention &quot;midwest factories&quot; there could well be a considerable difference in US and British techniques of the day and interpretation of the piece between factory and hand made as I am viewing this piece in the British style given the turned feet and general construction with which I am very familiar. </p><p>Apprentice pieces I have had through my saleroom have varied between simple jointed dovetail to pin tacked.</p><p>As far as rabbet/rebate joints are concerned your timeline may need revision. </p><p>&quot;As can be seen from the numerous references to &quot;rebate&quot; in her text, the furniture historian, Penelope Eames, refers to &quot;rabbeting&quot; as a process known and practiced during the medieval period in Europe. Below is a descriptive example of some surviving evidece of the practice of using rabbets in medieval European church construction (<b>Note:</b> According to the British author/editor of woodworking books and magazines, Vic Taylor, &quot;Although widely used in Britain, [rebate] is a corruption of the correct word &quot;rabbet&quot; See Taylor&#039;s <b><i>Woodworker&#039;s Dictionary </i></b>Pownal, VT: Storey Communications, 1987, 1990, page 158.):&quot;</p><p>Also from the early 19thC circa 1828:</p><p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rabbet%20joint" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rabbet%20joint" rel="nofollow">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rabbet joint</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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